Purdey

As the population declines Thailand needs to spend more to raise the education standard to keep up with more technologically advanced countries. It may not be the case now of how much is budgeted but how efficienly is it expended. Are they getting better quality young people? Are young people capable of leading the country in the future? Worse is the disappearance of funds as we hear in the media. Teachers gamble, get in debt for luxuries and money goes missing. Unless the government manages education more efficiently the money just disappears into a black hole.

Don't be so sure. It took me seconds to discover it is quite prevalent in the West. https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/father-daughter-rape https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/father-raped-daughter-almost-daily-jailed-warwickshire-a7450181.html I remember reading years ago that most rapes are committed by relatives or neighbours. I had a friend who was raped by her uncle in the UK. Bthis story is not so unusual anywhere in the world. Sorry if you meant Thai girls raped by western stepfathers. I see no reason why they are any different if drunk.

Usually, it is the media that gives away all the details. The Thai media is famous for this sort of coverage. Probably a business conflict because a hired gunman on the back of a bike costs money.

I guess the 64,000 dollar question is.... When gas prices come back down, will food prices follow?

Maybe you misunderstood. As a culture they express being risk averse in the number of laws and regulations they have. Naturally there are people who think nothing of breaking those rules (I will say why later) I have worked in Thai companies for 30 years and found people who did stupid things but the intelligent ones are very careful. But the original post refers to the need to cover themselves in rules, law and regulations e.g masks. Not being held accountable means imposing rules. People still die of COVID, but the government cannot be blamed because they issued a regulation or ban. Hence, if you go to get a new driving licence, you used to watch an English language video (I have also seen the Thai video and it wasn't the same). Pay attention and you find almost no difference to the traffic rules of the UK. Yes, I was shocked that the rules are so similar to the UK including the distance for parking near junctions etc. All of which Thais ignore. So your question is, if they are risk averse why do they drive like lunatics? Simply, most people don't understand it is a risk! If you don't have sufficient self awareness or education to realize it is a risk then it isn't a risk. My caution is don't blame the Thai authorities for being risk averse. They do know that COVID is still active and want to avoid the risk if it spreading or being blamed for not doing anything. I thoroughly advise you to read Geert Hofstede's research, compiled over decades, which allows you to compare business cultures (you know I can include government cultures here) of many countries. If you compare Thailand and Australia you will see a huge difference. Anyway, I hope this helps.

The petty anger of foreign immigrants (sorry, I mean expats) here will annoy even Thais that don't like the current government. First, understand that Thais are much more risk averse than the Australians, Americans and British. Read this https://www.hofstede-insights.com/fi/product/compare-countries/ to compare the difference and understand people here a bit more. While reported cases have improved, believing reported cases is perhaps another matter. Taking the p*ss out of the government about its efforts to prevent infection, seems counterintuitive when you see the disasters created in the West.

Interesting how the body ended up in Kanchanaburi. I didn't see any mention of him owning a vehicle and the suitcase must have had a bit of an odour if someone drove him to Kan. Yet no mention of that anywhere. While he was a steroid user, which can create rage, to kill someone in a room with no screams and cut her up with litres of blood on the floor or in the bathtub is incredible. He admitted he took the girl but the police simply haven't taken the opportunity to identify where he cut her up.

There are no simple solutions. After the fact people say the gunman was crazy. They say more mental healthcare is needed. BUT no one has an explanation for why a crazy guy was able to get a gun so easily AND being a country with no free healthcare who is going to pay for thousands, possibly millions, of people with the mental healthcare they need. As it wasn't until 2008 that SCOTUS ruled that keeping guns at home was allowed, maybe repealing that ruling would take American back to the constitution writers' intention.

It seems that those countries have a gun problem. But no solution for it. Fortunately, few mass shootings in schools.

Not sure how an electronic system could mix Thai and Arabic numbers. If the govt uses Thai numerals for general use but Arabic for money it could get confusing.

Interesting that Biden went to Uvalde but Trump went to the NRA convention.

You can't blame them. Being a colony that the British promised to protect to a Chinese outlier that the Chinese promised to protect, promises were broken. A pity they aren't flooding the UK as these are the best brains, but Singapore makes sense for regional headquarter. Thailand wouldn't know a regional headquarters if it hit them on the head. The complicated rules and regulations for setting up here makes my head spin. As an anecdote, someone from the BOI asked me if I knew any foreign businessmen and could I ask why they didn't set up their business in Thailand. The reply shocked the poor woman. "After 3 months there was no progress on my application in Thailand. I got a response within 3 days of applying in Singapore."

Surgeons protect the patient by not breathing germs at them. For hundreds of years surgery was performed without masks. People died.

Guns don't kill people, people with guns kill people. America has the highest gun death rate of any developed country (undeveloped countries do have more). While the constitution is available on pdf online, some Americans don't quite understand that the 2nd amendment did not give carte blanche for people to carry guns. It gives permission for a well regulated militia to be armed to protect their states against a tyrannical government. It was not until 2008 that the supreme court said people could have a gun at home. Two centuries later. However, to be fair, the NRA and Ronald Reagan banded together in the 70s to introduce some gun control... When they found out that black extremists, notably the Black Panthers, were lawfully open carrying guns. That's right, racism provoked gun laws. People often complain that these mass shootings are caused by crazy people and don't explain why crazy people find it so easy to get guns. Calls for mental healthcare in a country where there is no free mental healthcare is clearly problematic unless Ted Cruz is calling for socialised healthcare. Americans say that guns are banned in countries with low gun death rates. Not true, they are just controlled. As a British high school student I shot rifles as an army cadet. They also say (as Trump did) that knife deaths are higher in the UK. They are not. Americans stab each other more. People carrying knives are unlikely to kill as many people because getting close to people running away is much harder. Knives can only be effective at arm's length. Mass shootings are an American phenomenon that could be reduced with gun control but the NRA won't allow it (unless every black man has an AR 15 one supposes). Arguing that guns are a right not a privilege doesn't work when you know that it didn't become a right until 2008 and that Supreme Court rulings can be struck down.

Someone please explain, how does adding a tax bring costs down? Won't energy companies simply add the tax to their products?

So many seem to think not wearing masks is a good idea. Just discovered a woman a few doors down died of Covid. I guess Thailand can afford to accept more deaths but what happens when tourists find out numbers were covered up? If only people who don't want to wear masks would tell their doctor next time they have an operation that they don't want the surgeon and nurses to wear a mask! But they won't because they don't want to die.

Why are kids allowed to get away with this? Because they will become peaceful citizens one day who look back on this one day and feel the past is the past. When the military calls them up, many will make bad soldiers without discipline.

Was waiting for someone to say it is no worse than flu. When the tail starts to grow, let us know.

If the jewelry was still in the original boxes maybe they were intended for sale here. If she was wearing jewelry there is no reason to confiscate it. Thai women married to foreigners do like to show off their wealth but when this story is reported abroad, all of Thailand's boasts about being a tourist paradise will turn to dust in their mouths.

The water authority does clean the raw water so it is potable. Thinking about the old Roman pipes in London and the dead rats floating in them. Londoners swear it is fine to drink.

People who discover a windfall usually think this is their luck, like winning the lottery. They won't think of the person who put the money in as that is their fault. They see themselves as blameless. The money is probably the first good luck the family ever had.

Such a creepy guy. Always chasing skirt when I knew him. Had to drag my female staff away when he got insistent on asking them out. All done with daddy's money so this is just a hiccup in his life.

The developed world does not need protecting from guns. That's a US problem (and Latin American countries problem). Lots of stats to prove this from the FBI, CDC etc.

But.. but guns dont kill people. Bullets kill people.

Surprising that there are so many who, having tried to persuade everyone two years ago that it was just a type of flu, now still don't want to listen to doctors. Whatever you may say, long COVID is one of the results of having had COVID for some people, not all, and yet there are deniers who are willing to swear it is all made up. It is documented and has been explained for several years. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/long-term-effects/index.html Wherever you immigrated from, the story is very consistent. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/long-term-effects-of-coronavirus-long-covid/